Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present a new exhibition with Detroit-based artist Hannah Rose Dumes, titled FOUNT and opening on January 20, 2024. The exhibition spans the gallery’s front and back spaces, showcasing a range of sizes, including two of the largest the artist has created. FOUNT is Dumes’s first solo exhibition in Detroit.
Guided by intuition, Dumes’s paintings unfold organically, living many different lives in the studio before reaching their final form. Her compositions begin with a grid-like acrylic base and evolve through the patient layering of color and shape over extended periods of time, using oil paint and oil stick. The canvases then become a conduit for Dumes to impart her energy, with each stroke representing a nuanced reaction that informs subsequent decisions. Gradually, the visual elements begin to assume their own agency, commanding which areas warrant emphasis or release by way of the artist’s brush. Consequently, Dumes assumes the role of both creator and observer in manifesting each painting’s fate. Working on multiple pieces at once, the artist introduces another layer of dialogue—one amongst the works—nurturing a symbiotic exchange where the pieces collectively influence and animate one another. Often challenging and uncomfortable, this deliberate yet precarious process demands an embrace of risk-taking, and a procured level of self-trust in continuously abandoning elements that may work well in the hope of discovering something even more compelling.
The featured works operate in a realm of explorative abstraction, exhibiting a drift away from their geometric foundations. Organic forms and vibrant colors thrive off one another, referencing Detroit’s landscape in which architecture and nature coexist in fascinatingly unique ways. With its history of industrialization and disinvestment, many parts of the city serve as concrete canvases for the spontaneous growth of weeds and other wild vegetation, adding tiers of complexity to the urban fabric. While visual cues from Dumes’s daily surroundings are evident, the paintings primarily serve as internal reflections, acting as mirrors that capture and express the artist’s ever shifting state of mind across all interactions from start to finish. For Dumes, creativity is not confined to the artist’s studio but is intrinsically linked to the attention to one’s inner life: “There is a lot to be done outside the studio that allows an artist to make their work. Because I paint intuitively, much of my practice is about absorbing and taking in information from the world and allowing myself to become a channel for its energy, its big questions.” This state of connection, their effects conducive to Dumes's creations reaching their full potential, lies at the root of her practice.
Hannah Rose Dumes: FOUNT is on view from January 20, 2024 through February 21, 2024 at Louis Buhl & Co.
Paintings
Hannah Rose Dumes – Cherry Season
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas.
72 x 60 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Birdsong
Oil, acrylic and oil stick on canvas.
72 x 60 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – How Blue is Blue?
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas.
60 x 55 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Sabado
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas
60 x 55 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Flutter
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas.
60 x 55 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Milk & Honey
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas
60 x 55 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Twixt
Oil, acrylic, oil stick, and glitter on panel
40 x 30 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Tussle
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on panel
24 x 20 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Sweet Pea
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on panel
24 x 20 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Fever Dew
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on panel
24 x 20 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Maya
Oil, acrylic, oil stick, and rice paper on panel
24 x 20 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Evensong
Oil, acrylic, and oil stick on panel
24 x 20 in
Hannah Rose Dumes – Magneto
Oil, acrylic, fabric, and oil stick on panel
30 x 24 in